The skin is the body’s largest organ, but a new exhibition in London reveals how it is often the most overlooked organ, which people seem to take for granted.

The exhibition at the Wellcome Collection, London has put the human skin under the spotlight highlighting what a crucial part of the body it is.

The human skin prevents infections, retains fluid and other parts of the anatomy, it keeps us cool by allowing us to perspire, and generally act as a barrier to protect us.

So isn’t it time we celebrated what a fantastic organ it really is and gave it some TLC?

The exhibition aims to increase visitors’ understanding of the skin and covers various topics, such as society’s obsession with eternal youth, make up, tattoos, right through to revealing why the skin is so difficult to repair and heal following traumas such as burns.

Facial skin is particularly important, as it will forever be the part of the body that people see first. Looking after and maintaining your skin’s condition is vital to achieving optimum skin health, and it just so happens that good skincare equals youthful looks.

Changing your lifestyle can be the first steps to achieving good skin health – stopping smoking, cutting down on alcohol, eating healthily and exercising are all ways in which you can maintain your skin. Skin peels, using quality moisturisers and non-surgical cosmetic treatments can also re-inject some life into the skin and re-train it to produce the collagen and elasticity that is lost with age.

It seems that women just can’t win – one minute they’re being told they’re too fat, the next minute they’re too thin.

Health gurus Holland and Barratt have recently come under fire for airbrushing a model – not to make her appear slimmer – but to add around half a stone to make her look ‘healthy’.

Here at SkinGenesis, we like to promote health and wellbeing, but we also appreciate that women, and men, come in all shapes and sizes and it’s all about finding a weight, shape and size that you are comfortable with and one that is indeed healthy for you.

We believe that if there wasn’t so much pressure for everyone to achieve this make-believe notion of ‘perfection’, i.e. all looking the same, people would be more comfortable with how they look.

At the same time however, it’s good to have advice and guidance from bodies such as the Department of Health. Tackling obesity is currently a big priority for the Government, encouraging people to achieve a healthy weight for a healthy life.

A balanced diet and regular exercise is a sure-fire way to start shedding the pounds, but sometimes there will be areas of the body where stubborn fat just won’t shift. Usually it’s the hip, thighs, tummy and bottom areas that are the worst culprits.

Certain exercises and machines can work these areas more intensely, and you should consult a fitness instructor to advise on the best regime. Fat reduction treatments, such as Eporex mesotherapy can also assist in getting rid of fat, as part of a healthy weight-loss programme.

A YouGov survey has revealed that over 50% of respondents reported being confused by media reports on the latest cancer scares and things you should avoid consuming to decrease your chance of getting the disease.

In the last few years, I can recall hearing half a dozen cancers off the top of my head – spray deodorants, bacon sandwiches, red meat, Walkers Worcester Sauce flavour crisps, mobile phones, mouthwash… I could go on.

If you took any notice of all these stories that seem to hit the front pages of the papers as *Breaking News*, you would be a nervous wreck and never eat or use anything that’s for sale in the supermarkets.

The BBC website placed an article on this topic recently and featured a spokesperson from World Cancer Research Fund who quite cleverly likened each scientific study that presents these findings to ‘little pieces of evidence’ in a ‘police investigation’.

To avoid mass hysteria on the part of the confused British public, he advised that scientists should be trained to present and articulate their findings in a more concise way, and the media should start to print small disclaimers about the limitations of the study.

One thing that we can confirm is that the sun’s rays definitely pose a risk to the skin. If you have sunbathed unprotected or used sunbeds when you were younger, chances are you’ll have some level of skin damage, particularly on your face.

Many skin clinics offer a free skin analysis to assess the degree of sun damage caused and can advise on the next steps to take to rectify it. We call ours an expert skin analysis which looks at sun damage, moisture content and pH. Very useful stuff to know and well worth it because it’s free!

Everyone is always saying how friendly those geordies are, and scientists at Newcastle University would go to the bottom of the ocean and back to help tackle obesity – and guess what?! They have!

Forget swapping your Cadburys for carrot sticks. And ditching your car in favour of the bike every morning. Seaweed could hold the answer to all our prayers when it comes to avoiding obesity.

Seaweed fibres could soon be added to foods that are regularly consumed, such as bread and biscuits, which apparently reduces the body’s fat uptake by up to 75%, which, as the BBC reports, is better than some anti-obesity programmes.

But before you go and get your snorkel, you might want to wait until it’s all tried and tested. The findings are currently in the trial and development process, but we reckon they could be onto a major breakthrough here if successful. How fantastic would it be to know that you’re actually helping your body by eating carb-laden products like bread?!

In the meantime, if you want a fat reduction boost while you’re waiting, why not have a look at mesotherapy? This technique dates back years and was originally developed in Paris. The results speak for themselves and all our clients speak very highly of it. And so do we.

With the summer season just around the corner, now is the perfect time to give it a whirl – and then you’ll be in shape to dive in for that seaweed!

Latest news reports state that moderate drinking of red wine is likely to help you lose weight and reduce fat, but with each small glass totalling around 120 calories – is it really worth the risk?

In recent years we’ve had it drilled into us that drinking alcohol puts on weight, that it’s fattening and basically quite bad for your health. But then we’ve also been told that drinking like they do on the continent – the odd small glass with a meal or in the evening – can actually be quite beneficial…

We don’t know about you, but we’re a bit confused. And drinking wine would certainly not be on the top of our ‘most effective weightloss methods’ list! We predict that most people (i.e. those outside of the controlled conditions of any piece of research) would probably just gain weight and be more unhappy with their size than when they started.

It was also acknowledged that the results of the research would also have been affected by individuals’ lifestyle choices, such as exercise and diet.

We don’t think there’s anything more effective than good old fashioned exercise for losing weight, either down the gym or running round a park, as well as making healthy choices when it comes to which foods you eat. The occasional treat is fine – even wine! Just as long as you do everything in moderation. And if you want to be certain of shifting some fat – perhaps for a birthday, wedding or other special occasion – mesotherapy fat reduction treatments can work wonders!

We’ve spotted yet another hard-hitting ‘natural beauty’ campaign from Dove, which at the end urges parents to talk to their daughters before the beauty industry does.

We are firm believers in maximising on people’s natural beauty and encourage healthy lifestyles, natural non-surgical cosmetic treatments and making people feel great in their own skin.

Of course we all have our ‘ugly days’, where we wish we were just that little bit thinner, had a few less wrinkles, but there’s a lot to be said of embracing your shape and features and just being happy!

We’re strong supporters of these Dove beauty campaigns from across the pond and although they may contain some strong messages and graphic images, perhaps that’s what is needed to show the media that not everyone will be pressured into trying to find that ‘perfect body’ – because guess what? It doesn’t exist.

The BAAPS has reported a huge 80% rise in the number of males seeking cosmetic surgery on their ‘moobs’ in just the last year.

And the BBC reports that one surgeon blames it on the increasing pressure that men are feeling from the media. Sound familiar ladies?

We’re not surprised by these stats at all. In fact it was only a matter of time before men started feeling apprehensive about their looks as the muscle-flexing, wash-board stomach ideal is portrayed as being the norm. Like women, who have endured this pressure for years, men are now influenced by countless TV programmes and magazine features to ‘get in touch with their feminine side’, ‘use guyliner’, ‘stay trim for the beach’ etc etc.

With the rise in obesity and the ‘want-it-now’ culture that we live in, it appears easier for people to turn to the knife for a quick fix here and there, and we thoroughly believe that the rise is due to increased awareness of what can be done about body hang ups.

We would always urge people – men and women – to consider the alternatives before resorting to surgical cosmetic enhancements. Targeted fat reduction is a natural method of losing fat in problem areas, without the need for any invasive procedures. Coupled with a good exercise regime and a healthy balanced diet, it will help shed any excess baggage around the chest, waist and thighs.

One minute we’re getting told off because we eat too much, then the next thing you know, we’re being told that we need to eat more because apparently the larger our thighs, the less chance we have of heart disease. We can’t win!

Latest research has shown that bigger thighs reduce the risk of developing diabetes and heart disease, so if you were thinking of having fat reduction treatments to comply with recent obesity advice, you may want to leave out your thighs!

Advice needs to be more consistent and clear. I don’t think the advice here is to eat more to bulk up our legs – we don’t want to be accused of being a nation of greedy people now do we?

We would advise what we have always recommended – plenty of exercise, a healthy balanced diet and if needed, a few treatments of mesotherapy to get rid of excess fat.

And if you do want to be extra cautious and protect against heart disease, try building up the muscles in your thighs to increase the circumference, instead of increasing the fat. The place to measure is just below the gluteal fold (the crease below your bottom and at the top of the thigh) which should, apparently, be 60cm or more.

We say, just stay healthy and we’re sure you’ll be fine, big thighs or not!

Those who enjoy a daily Starbucks, lunchtime Coke and an afternoon smoothie, then a beer after work may want to think again if they’re trying to keep their figure.

Office workers especially like to indulge in tasty drinks and snacks when they’re sat at their desk, but i think you would be shocked by how many calories there are in some of the nation’s favourite drinks.